Texas lands shot-blocking big man

By the time Prince Ibeh got around to making his college decision Thursday night, he likely could have picked just about any program in the country.

However, the 6-foot-10 center from Garland (Texas) Naaman Forest decided that he would stay local and picked the Texas Longhorns.

"Texas first of all they have a pedigree of players like Prince going to the next level and that was intriguing to him," said Prince's summer coach with the Top Achiever Pistons, Lawrence Mann. "Recruiting him it was Rick Barnes himself, and that meant a lot to us.

"Also, he wants to win a national championship and he feels like he can do that with the players they have there."

Entering the summer virtually unknown outside of the state of Texas, Ibeh proved to have a rare blend of size and athleticism. During stints with the Top Achievers and a few runs in Nike's EYBL with the Texas Titans he proved to be a very high level shot blocker who could really run the floor.

According to Mann, it was seeing Ibeh turn up his level of play and want to compete against the best that has helped to transform him.

That willingness to compete also meant that Texas already having a pair of quality bigs on board in five-star Cameron Ridley and three-star Connor Lammert only enhanced the Longhorns standing with Ibeh.

"He told me "I'm not afraid of competition, I want it," Mann told Rivals.com. "When he told me that I was like you are right, done deal."

A rapidly rising four-star prospect who currently ranks #54 nationally, Ibeh is the fourth member of what is turning out to be a high quality class of big guys who will be put on the floor with a steady point guard in Javan Felix.

"They feel that they have three big guys in that class that are really good and they've all got to compete," said Mann of Texas' plans for Ibeh. "They feel Prince has a bounce and a upside where they can play guys at different positions and he can get his minutes by playing his game and playing hard.

"You have guys who worry about being one and done and Prince isn't worried about all of that. Prince just wants to get better."